Disabled woman strips to bra and knickers in protest at airport security checks

Disabled woman strips to bra and knickers in protest at airport security checks

Dec 3 2010 By Keith McLeod
WHEELCHAIR-BOUND Tammy Banovac arrived at an airport stripped to her undies in a protest over security searches.
But despite being nearly naked, her search still took more than an hour – and she missed her flight.
Furious Tammy, 52, said she felt “violated” after an earlier security search at Oklahoma airport.
She told reporters: “If it happened anywhere else, it would have been sexual assault.”
The divorcee arrived in her wheelchair on Tuesday stripped to black bra and panties – accessorising with a string of pearls and a small white dog in her lap.
She said: “I just want to make it easier on myself. They can see the parts of my body they would want to search.”
But security officials insisted they had picked up a trace of nitrate – used to make explosives – on her wheelchair.
Their search took so long that she missed her flight to her home town of Phoenix, Arizona.
Tammy’s discomfort was caught on video by another passenger.
She repeated the security process and pat-down on Wednesday – again in just her underwear.
As no explosives were detected, she was finally able to catch her flight.
Anger has been growing in the US over intimate searches involving officers running their hands over passengers’ groin areas.

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